Darkest Day (3 page)

“I got jealous.”

“Of me being sick? You’re not making sense.”

She shook her head against me. “I was so mad at you last week.” Her fist beat against my shirt. “But I didn’t mean it. I didn’t.”

She’s talking about the kiss she tried at her house, right?
I took her arms and pulled them off me. “Didn’t mean … what?”

“You really love her, don’t you? All these years I thought you hated her and then you get together. I tried to get Ridge to ask her out—”

Holding Maddie out from me, I said, “You had Ridge … you suggested he ask Mac out? But, Maddie, she’s dating me.”
Is this why she made a move at her house? Did she think Mac and I would break up, and she could just … go for it?

Downcast eyes tilted up to me. “I just thought … you and I have competed all our lives. You never … dated, really, so I just thought … I mean, I—” She shook her head and dropped it down, into her hands. “I just thought … Ridge said he was interested in Mac, so it seemed appropriate, and I … encouraged him.” She sniffled. “And then I was so mad about the stupid party, I invited him, and he totally ruined what could have been awesome.”

How does she know about that night if everyone drank a memory potion? What exactly does she remember? That Ridge can do magic? Does she know he’s not human? Or is it something else altogether?

“Then … she left, and we’d … you know … found each other again.” Her fingertips gripped my arms. “And then I wanted to kiss you and … that was so stupid, too, Winn. I’m so embarrassed. So you see?”

Not really.
“It’s okay.” Though, the idea that one of my best friends, someone I’d known since I was in preschool, would deliberately try to sabotage my relationship with Mac—or anyone—kinda hurt.

“And then—”

There’s more?

“I heard you were at the hospital. I told my dad you were my boyfriend.” A deep sob erupted.

Her dad? Not Mac’s dad? Phelps is a doctor? Does that mean he’s human? Or do non-humans work like that for humans? Is Moira married to a human?
My eyes shot open.
That’s not possible! That’s against the rules!

Stop jumping to conclusions.

“I just thought he’d treat you better if I said that. You know? I just … I totally messed up, Winn. I’m supposed to be so smart but everything’s been backfiring ever since you and Mac got together. My … my emotions are all over the place.”

I took Maddie by the hand and pulled her back against me. Her honesty and clear pain at everything that had happened had me softening about the whole Ridge push—not the magical-try-to-kill-me part, just that she’d encouraged him.

“You hate me now, don’t you?”

I rubbed the back of her hair, soft but not like Mac’s. “Nah. I don’t. It’s no big deal.”

“We’re good, then? Friends?” Maddie sniffled against me as footsteps made their way up from downstairs. She ran a hand against my cheek, and I took her wrist and held it tight. “Do you forgive me, Winn?”

“There’s nothing to forgive. Really. There’s not.”

She lifted up and kissed me as Mac walked through my door.

3

Mac

“Are you kidding with this?” I stood in the frame of Winn’s door, staring at him with the little blonde traitor’s arms around his neck. Raising one brow, I gave Winn my best glare, aiming daggers at Maddie’s back. Just because I wouldn’t be around didn’t mean I had any philanthropic bent toward finding him a replacement. He’d have to do that on his own.
Afterward
.

Maddie slid down Winn until her feet landed on the floor, her face buried in his shirt.

“It’s not what it looks like.” Winn held his arms out wide.

“Right.” I stormed in closer, not angry with him in the least. I’d had my own suspicions about Maddie for a while, wondering when she’d make her move. “He’s home for an hour, Maddie, and you’re going after him with me less than fifty feet away? Seriously?”

Maddie turned and faced me. “It was an apology. That’s all.” Her tone came across sincere, but the tiny eyebrow raise negated her statement.

“Say that to him with that same face and see if he believes you.” I wagged a finger toward Winn, indicating she should turn around.

“I don’t need this.” Maddie held her hands over her chest, her bleeding heart voice carrying on in direct contrast to her facial expression. “I was happy to know Winn was okay and apologized for something I did. To
him.
This has nothing to do with you.”

“Like hell it doesn’t. So again,
Maddie,
repeat those words while facing Winn.”

“You both know I’m standing right here, right?” the guy himself said.

“Yes,” Maddie and I both said.

She narrowed her eyes, making her appear nothing like the Maddie she’d been for the last six months, especially with the tear at the corner of one eye.

I rolled mine in as dramatic a fashion as possible as she turned to Winn.

“I’m sorry again, Winn.” She reached out, running her fingers along his arm and taking his hand. “I’ll see you at school, okay?”

“Yeah … uh sure,” he said.

Maddie let go and spun, sticking her tongue out at me before she hunched her shoulders—pretending, no doubt, to fear me as she passed as close to the door frame as possible.

“Oh, get a grip.” I slammed the door shut and turned to Winn. “Well, now, tell me what that was all about.”

His mouth hung open.

“You don’t believe that sob story apology, do you?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” He ran a hand through his hair.

“You know that was all a game, right?”

Winn drew clothes out from the top dresser drawer. “What was?”

“Maddie’s little show there.”

The zipper of his jeans clicked its way down. “No, it wasn’t. And don’t look. I need to change.”

I whirled, arms crossed over my chest.

“She was apologizing for a few things, including suggesting Ridge try to get you to go out with him.”

Shock had me turning. Winn stood in his black Jockey’s, the package taking my gaze from the get-go.
Oops.

His hands covered himself a second later as I slow-turned back away, a giant smile building on my face.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” he asked.

“Of course not.” I used my serious voice, though inside, I knew the opposite. Two could play Maddie’s game.

Swishing of clothes went faster. “Okay. Done.”

I sauntered to him. “You know we have a lot to talk about, right?”

“Yeah, we do.” He ran a finger across the top of my ear, pushing my hair back. “I missed you, Mac.”

“I missed you, too.”

Winn lowered until his lips hit mine, sparks of heat racing through my body the way they did every time we kissed. I’d have preferred that moment last forever, but held back, reminding myself we only had three months left. As much as I wanted to rush forward, to make up for all the time we’d lose, we had to talk through some more pressing issues first. Ridge didn’t matter to me, and neither did Maddie, but finding whoever had attacked Winn and nearly killed him in the process did. I wouldn’t let anyone do that once we separated for good.

Arms around each other, our foreheads touched.

“You said you loved me, didn’t you?” Winn asked.

I went rigid. I didn’t mean to tell him.
Yes, you did, Mac.
He just hadn’t wanted to leave the in-between.
You had no choice.
He’d had to go, or he’d have died for real-real instead of real-with-a-chance-to-come-back.

“You’re thinking, aren’t you? Trying to come up with an alternative answer to ‘Yes, Winn. I said I love you, and I meant it’, right?”

Geez.
“Of course not.” I slapped his chest, the muscles jumping underneath my hand.

“Liar.” His smirk made me smile.

“You have a houseful of welcome-home guests downstairs you should probably deal with before we talk more.” Extricating myself from Winn’s hold took effort since he wouldn’t let go. I twisted and turned, lowering and raising to get away from him.

With each move, he countered and pulled me against him again.

As our chests bumped up against each other, my hands wound around his neck and his lips lay against mine. Our tongues met while the biggest obstacle of all played through my mind. In less than three months, our entire relationship would end. We had no choice.

Yet, he thought I’d said I loved him.

I had, and I meant it with every inch of my heart and soul. He just couldn’t know.

• • •

“A
bout time you joined the land of the living again,” Pete said, as we entered the living room.

Caroline nudged him with her shoulder. “Don’t listen to him. We’ve been fed by your friend there.” She inclined her head toward Suze who walked into the living room with a huge platter of food.

I grabbed one of the chocolate bars he had on the side and tore into it. The last time I’d eaten had been early that morning when the hospital delivered Winn’s disgusting breakfast of runny egg-looking things and stale toast.

The rest of the welcoming committee holed up around the perimeter, their gazes wary and uncertain. Eyes wide or narrowed. Hands on hips or holding a drink. Soft whispers I could sense but not hear went to each other.

In another hour, as day turned to night, I’d be on their team, the non-human one.
Thankfully.
I’d had to stay human to remain in the hospital, and my need to stretch my unladylike muscles, as Nahir liked to say, made me want to get out and fight a few vampires.

Winn’s hand slid to my lower back, reminding me exactly why I played the human part so much—why I’d stopped forcing my better-half out of my system at the end of each day.

“Where’s Maddie?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes.
Who cares?

“Left.” Pete mumbled something as he shoveled in chips and dip as if it were the last meal he’d get. “With her mom.”

“She say why?” Winn asked.

I wanted to turn around and pinch his lips shut. Why did it matter that she left? She left.
End of story.
A pang of something hit my heart, a sensation I didn’t understand. Hurt? Jealousy? Whatever, I banked it and pulled Winn to the couch; we dropped together onto the leather.

“Can I get anybody anything else?” Suze’s getup, complete with apron, forced a chuckle up through me.

“No, thanks,” I said. “You’re the best, Suze.”

With a nod and giant smile, he inched his way back around.

“So, Winn …” Josie, a Siren with her deep red hair and gorgeous everything, pushed away from the wall, where she stood with her arms crossed. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah. But still really sore.”

“From the accident?” Pete asked. “Or the flu thing? I seriously heard that strain was nasty.”

I hadn’t told Winn what happened to his dad’s car, though Suze mentioned he’d crashed it to fake a wreck. That poor Jaguar had twice been beaten to snot for no good reason. The story we made up worked well enough for the human mind: while driving, Winn had had a seizure due to the flu, wrecked his car and spent a week in the hospital. The flu had been a perfect excuse, as a strain had hit our school and taken out over ten percent of the population. No one died, but the sickness provided the perfect cover for Winn’s absence.

We still needed to explain my month-long departure, but I figured that could wait until someone actually cared enough to ask.

Cleo traipsed up to Winn and patted his shoulder. “We’re really glad you’re … feeling better, Winn. Very, very glad, in fact. I hope this doesn’t change your mind about any of your future plans.”

“School’s going to let you graduate, right?” Pete munched on carrot sticks.

“It was only a week,” Caroline said. “But you—” She pointed to me. “You missed a whole month. What was up with that? Winn said you were sick, but for a whole month? And no phone call to me or Maddie?”

Dammit.
Did I only have to think it for her to ask? “Maybe I don’t heal as well as he does.” I shrugged. Around the room, the non-humans bristled. “Or maybe I decided to take a break.”

Josie gave me a fast, almost invisible headshake.

Wrong answer? Was one given that no one shared with me? Of course there was! That’s how my own kind screw me over all the time. They don’t tell me!
“Or maybe—” I bit into my chocolate bar. “Maybe I had a few interviews for late entry into a few colleges.”
That didn’t even sound unreasonable.

Winn turned to me, his brows drawing together.

I could have, couldn’t I?
Dammit, now I’ll have to just to make it real.
Back to my chocolate, I finished the last of it. It didn’t matter if I graduated. A future within the human world didn’t exist for me. My life came with picking a supernatural form for the rest of my life and ruling like some self-righteous king. I only had to be a part of the human realm until my nineteenth birthday, but I could fake it along the way as I had for the last eighteen years.

“You’re biting that chocolate as if it were a plank of wood.” Winn’s whisper came right at my ear.

I dropped the remaining piece to my lap, eyeing the falling sun through the back windows of his house. An itchiness to fight, to exercise my right to be anything I wanted, fought with my desire to stay by Winn.

Josie approached, placed her hand on my shoulder, and squeezed. “I believe Winn may need some rest, and you, Mackenzie darling, have an appointment with your counselor.”

Counselor.
I knew Josie chose that word in place of ‘the Council’ due to Winn’s entourage. The moment he’d woken, and I’d sent Suze on a true information gathering mission, the Council had pounced—thus the five of them who’d descended upon Winn’s house at his return.

Josie let go and walked away, toward Winn’s dad who stood at the door’s edge. If I hadn’t been watching, I wouldn’t have noticed the way Bernie’s eyebrows winged up as she approached.

Something going on there? How’s that possible if humans and non-humans don’t mix?

I turned back to Pete and Caroline as they stood. “So …” Caroline started, “I guess we’ll be going.” She swiped at her jeans, flattening the wrinkles. “We’ll see you at school soon, Winn?”